Amanda Walker

US Correspondent

The UK has now resumed communication with the US in relation to the Manchester attack.

But the decision to temporarily stop sharing intelligence was a stinging blow.

Britain and America's co-operation is critical to the global counter-terrorism fight.

A former senior US intelligence official told me there was disappointment at the news but there can be no "anger or complaint" about the decision.

Intelligence is given on the understanding of something called the 'control principle'.

It's an established rule that a country offers information on its own terms and another country has no right whatsoever to make it public.

Image:A battery that could have been the power source of the bomb

So where are these leaks coming from?

There are all sorts of theories - Obama loyalists, disgruntled cops - but a consensus is forming around the chaotic nature of Trump's presidency and the poor state of his relations with US intelligence agencies.

According to that same former official: "We do not appear to be an overly rules-based or well-organised government at the moment."

None of this is inconsistent with the kind of information you would expect in the aftermath of a US incident.

In the wake of a mass shooting, for example, details about the perpetrators comes thick and fast. There are cultural differences in the way information is disseminated.

But the argument here is that this intelligence isn't the US authorities' to share and the UK has the right to control its own flow of information.

This will have only compounded trust issues that stemmed from reports surrounding Mr Trump's loose-lipped conversation with the Russian foreign minister and ambassador during their now infamous Oval Office meeting.

Prime Minister Theresa May made it clear she wants assurances from Mr Trump that this won't happen again.